


A Walk in the Woods

by rudbeckia



Series: Spookylux Huxloween 2018 [3]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Demons, Fire, M/M, Mild Horror, huxloween 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-16 02:59:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16076957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Spookylux/Huxloween day 3: scary stories by the fireBen and Armitage snuggle near a fire while Armitage tells Ben a story about his stepmother, Maratelle. It does not end well for Maratelle.





	A Walk in the Woods

Warm orange-yellow and red licked and flickered over the garden walls. Flames danced and leapt and crackled, sending bright sparkles up into the indigo sky where they could compete with the few early evening stars before the moon showed up to win. Breath condensed into clouds in the chill air away from the fire, and Ben grabbed Hux by the hand and pulled him back when he strayed too near the heat. Hux laughed for the sense of joyful release it gave him.  
“Did I ever tell you,” he said to Ben, “about the time Maratelle tried to kill me?”  
Ben raised his eyebrows. “Really? She did that?”  
“Yes,” replied Hux. “I was a daily reminder that she’d married a bastard.”  
Hux hiccupped and swigged from the bottle he’d been cradling. Ben sighed and reached for it.  
“Are you sharing?”  
“What?” Hux frowned then giggled. He held out the bottle. “Of course. It’s polite to share.”  
Ben took the bottle and hurled it into the fire.  
“Hey!” Hux cried as the glass shattered and the flames tinged with pale blue. “That was Talisker!”  
“No more. I’ll buy you another bottle if you still feel bad about it tomorrow,” said Ben. “Tell me about Maratelle.”  
“Well then,” said Hux. “I suppose we should move away and sit down.”

Ben led Hux to a safe distance from the fire, now spreading as flames licked at fresh fuel. There was a low wall where they could sit and watch it burn. The stone felt cold under Ben’s thighs, so he got up, slipped his coat off and folded it onto the rough surface before Hux sat, then slung one arm around Hux’s back. Hux rested his head on Ben’s shoulder.  
“Maratelle would do anything to hang on to status,” said Hux. “I don’t blame her for that since she was stuck in a tier of society that valued a woman only for the extent to which she could augment her husband’s standing. So she resented me because I gave her the choice of losing status privately because her husband fucked the kitchen help and got away with it, or losing status publicly by leaving him. She chose to stay. Said she’d signed a binding contract.”  
Ben hugged Armitage a little tighter. Armitage sighed and reached for the whisky bottle, then grumbled when he remembered that it was gone.  
“Well then. She was nice to me in her way. She would take me for long walks, deep into the woods, along the side of the fast flowing river and across the rickety bridge that spanned the gorge, and we’d jump to make it wobble and creak, laughing our heads off.”  
Ben laughed. “Interesting choice of words under the circumstances.”  
“That wasn’t enough for Maratelle,” retorted Hux. “One day we were strolling home through the trees after the moon came up and I got scared by the noises of the animals that come out at night so I grabbed her hand but she shook me off. Only, before I let go I felt her hand change. Instead of smooth, fine-boned fingers and manicured nails, I felt rough scales and sharp, curved claws.”  
Ben watched the flames and slowly angled his head until his cheek rested gently on Hux’s fiery hair. “Go on,” he said. “What happened?”  
“I screamed again and ran. I could hear her call me but her voice was wrong. Too low. Too raspy. I ran and ran until I thought my lungs might burst. All the time I could hear her. First her voice, then her howls, and all the time the sound of her claws tearing at the ground as she pelted after me. But I was small and I was fast, and before she caught me I crashed out of the forest and into the road. There were headlights and I froze. The car swerved, its lights flashing across Maratelle’s changed form, showing me in an instant her grey scaly hide and her serrated tail swishing back and forth, her deep set eyes that reflected red light back to me and her jaws set in a snarl with pointed teeth like a crocodile’s.”  
Ben shivered and pulled the last few millimetres closer to Hux.  
“And in the next instant she was gone. Back into the forest. The driver got out to curse at me for running out, then he checked if I was okay and drove me home. He took me right up to the house and explained what had happened to Brendol. Only he hadn’t seen Maratelle at all.”  
“What happened to Maratelle?” Ben asked, voice barely a murmur.  
“Oh, she came back in the morning and said she’d had a hell of a night with her craft circle friends in town. Not a sign of scales or claws or a tail or demonically glowing eyes. But I never went with her anywhere alone again and Brendol sent me away to boarding school a week later.”

The fire across the street reached the attic of the house at last. Glass windows cracked and popped and shattered, and from somewhere deep inside the building a series of explosions made the ground shake. Hux giggled. “That’ll be Brendol’s precious collection of war memorabilia. He kept that lot secret but I knew.”  
“Brendol was a—“  
Whatever Ben had been about to suggest was drowned out by an unearthly shriek that pierced through the crackling flames. A loud crash reached their ears and the east section of the roof caved in, raining burning debris down to the ground. Flames rushed skyward from the hole in the roof and, from within the plume of fire, a figure writhed and tried to fly. But as they watched, its wings charred and flamed and the demon plummeted back into the heart of the inferno.  
Hux sighed. “And there she goes. Back to Hell.”

“We should leave,” Ben said, shaking Hux gently by the shoulder. Hux raised his head and nodded, and they got up to stamp life back into cold legs and feet before walking away without a backwards glance while, in the distance, sirens wailed.


End file.
